NEW DELHI: The discontinuation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) without providing any alternative relief measures will make the lives of the poor much harder, says eminent economist Jean Dreze.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper, Dreze said that PMGKAY, under which free rations were provided to the poor as a relief measure during the Covid-19 pandemic, has been of great help to poor households in the last two years. The PMGKAY, which was started in April 2020, provided poor families with 5 kg of food grains each month. The Union government discontinued the PMGKAY programme recently saying the economic situation has improved since Covid-19 cases have come down and restrictions have eased.
“The enhanced foodgrain rations of 10 kg per person per month (5 kg under the National Food Security Act, and 5 kg under PMGKAY) covered the bulk of the foodgrain requirements of the poor households. This reassured them that there would always be food at home and enabled them to spend their meagre earnings on other items,” said Dreze, a faculty at Delhi School of Economics and a visiting faculty at Ranchi University.
To counterbalance the termination of PMGKAY, the government has announced a free ration to 81.35 crore people under the National Food Security Act for one year. However, Dreze said that the government’s decision to roll out free rations for a year from January 1 is a token gesture aimed at sweetening the pill. He points out that until now, the NFSA cardholders were entitled to 5 kg of foodgrain per person per month at Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 3 per kg for rice.
“This year, they will get the same amount for free. This will save them Rs 15 per person per month at most. That is just a tiny fraction of what they are losing from the discontinuation of PMGKAY. Unfortunately, the Modi government managed to create the impression that free rations would compensate for the end of PMGKAY,” he said.
Though, the Belgian-born economist agrees with the argument that a prolonged extension of PMGKAY would have led to an unsustainable depletion of food grain stocks. He says that abrupt and complete termination of the programme without setting up alternative relief measures is unjustifiable.
While experts say that the cessation of PMGKAY will save the government nearly Rs 1.8 lakh crore annually, Dreze emphasized that the government should utilize the savings to revamp social security measures such as child nutrition schemes, social security pensions and maternity benefits, which have been neglected in recent years.
“They could also be used to expand the coverage of the public distribution system, from which 100 million people are unfairly excluded today because of the continued use of outdated population figures to set NFSA foodgrain allocations.
All this and more could be done well within the PMGKAY savings,” he said.